Abstract

Public price trends for innovator and generic AIDS medicines in Latin America and the Caribbean 2005-2008

Presented by Clinton Trout (United States).

C. Trout1, Y. Santa Ana Tellez2, V.J. Wirtz2, W.A. Kaplan3

1Boston University School of Public Health, Cambridge, Mass, United States, 2Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública, Cuernavaca, Mexico, 3Boston University School of Public Health, Cambridge, United States

Background: 2.0 million people in the Latin America and Caribbean region (LAC) are infected with HIV. Though the majority of LAC countries are middle-income, sustainable access to antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) is hampered by high drug prices, particularly those of second-line treatment, and the recent economic downturn. Methods: Using the Global Price Reporting Mechanism (GPRM) data base provided by the World Health Organization (WHO), we compared median prices and price trends for public entities in 16 LAC countries for 24 individual ARVs from January 1, 2005 to December 31, 2008. We also compared the median price trends for innovator and generic versions over the time period. Results: Taking 2005 as the baseline, median prices for all 12 first-line ARVs both innovator and generic, declined from 18%-96%, depending on the drug and formulation. For second-line drugs, the median prices for 8 of the 12 innovator drugs analyzed actually increased from 10-149% (per individual drug) while the prices of the remaining four declined from 9-76%. For generic second-line drugs, the median prices for 3 out of 7 generic drugs increased 9-85% while the other four declined 9-53%. Conclusions: Other studies focusing on other regions of the world have found that first-line ARV prices are declining rapidly while second-line ARV prices are declining more slowly or not at all. Our analysis -the first to our knowledge of LA region- found the same trend in the LAC region for first-line drugs but rising prices for many 2nd-line ARVs.